


Hidden Gems

by superRDF



Series: Swanville [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), Smallville
Genre: Crossover, F/M, swanville
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-09
Updated: 2013-05-09
Packaged: 2017-12-10 17:37:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/788341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/superRDF/pseuds/superRDF
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lois and Clark stumble upon Storybrooke and Lois is determined to unearth it's secrets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hidden Gems

**Author's Note:**

> post-s8e01 of Smallville and post-season 1 of OUAT. Not sure where this came from or where it's going. also, excuse any mistakes or mishaps as my knowledge of Storybrooke's layout isn't perfect :P

“You know Clark, when you suggested a cross country roadtrip I expected to stay in the big cities.”

“Come on Lois, the real experience is finding the hidden gems. New York isn’t going anywhere.”

“Yeah, and Maine has about as many hidden gems as Lex Luthor has hair follicles.”

Clark had to resist rolling his eyes and instead gave Lois a look of amusement. They’re conversation for the last few hours had been like this; Lois explaining her discontent with their progress and Clark doing his to _politely_ disagree. After all this had been her idea to begin with. ‘A search for inspiration’ at least that’s how she had described it to Perry in order to give them the time off from work. Apparently even Nobel Prize winning writers needed to find some inspiration from the world. Something told Clark that Perry just gave in knowing that she’d never drop it if he didn’t.

How he ended up going with her, he still wasn’t quite sure himself.

“You of all people should know the best secrets lie in small towns” Clark said as he kept his eyes focused on the road ahead of them. It had been a few hours since their last stop off, and would be a few hours until their next. A prospect he tried not to think of.

“And typically those secrets are dangerous and involve some level of crazy” Lois added.

The farm boy glanced over at her with an amused look, “Is Lois Lane afraid of danger?”

Lois didn’t see the amusement as he did and merely scoffed at his suggestion, “Don’t kid yourself, Smallville. I was raised around hand grenades, I’m not afraid of a little suspicious activity.” The grin remained on Clark’s face despite her denial. He had no doubt that when it came to fight or flight, Lois was brave (or smart depending on the situation) but that didn’t mean she couldn’t get spooked.

He turned his eyes back to the road as a comfortable silence fell over them. In fact it had been so quiet that when Lois clapped her hands together, Clark nearly jumped and caused the car to swerve. “That’s it!” she exclaimed, the same look on her face as when she made a breakthrough on a case.

“What’s it, Lois?” Clark asked, recomposing himself as he quickly looked over to her.

“Small town mysteries. They all have secrets like you said, it can be a weekly article for _Planet_. Traveling across America, uncovering it’s darkest secrets” by the time she finished speaking she already had her blackberry out and was texting away, “I’m going to shoot the idea to Perry, it’ll be perfect.”

Clark couldn’t hide the look of apprehension on his face but he knew even in the early stage, once an idea had taken root in Lois’ head there was little anyone could do to stop it. “Darkest secrets wasn’t exactly what I meant when I said hidden gems.”

Again she scoffed, never once looking up from her phone. “You think people want to read about how Nanny in the middle of nowhere has the best oatmeal recipe? Creepy secrets drive the public interest, just look at Smallville.”

He didn’t know if creepy was the word he would use to describe Smallville, but unexplained occurrences did tend to draw the interest of others. In his experience though, those interests were never beneficial. There was always an ulterior motive, at least if Lex Luthor was to be taken for an example. “But Lois, you said it yourself. Danger usually comes with these towns. They’re called secrets for a reason. You go prying and who knows what someone might do to protect them.”

_Well now who’s being afraid_ Lois thought as she hit send on the email she had just typed up. Before she could begin to poke holes in his theory; namely the fact that most small towns boasted about their supernatural feats, just take Smallville’s ‘home of meteor showes’ for example, she looked up and saw sign on the side of the road.

“Wow Smallville, we’re here already. You finally put the pedal to the metal” she commented, reading the name on the sign. _Storybrooke. I’ve heard worse._

“What are you talking about Lois, our next town isn’t for a hundred miles” Clark said, glancing at the sign as they passed it then to the GPS on the dashboard. The sign was clear enough but the GPS showed no indication of anything other than highway road.

“Well looks like you need to update your GPS, Smallville. Cause that looks like a town up ahead” Lois pointed to the buildings in front of them, specifically one building.

A clock tower was the only thing tall enough to poke out over the tree line but sure enough as they drew closer the familiar signs of a small town came into view. A café, small shops ranging from a toy store to a pawn shop; the place already reminded him of downtown Smallville. Still, Clark didn’t understand why it hadn’t appeared before hand. Maybe she was right, he just needed to update the maps on it.

“Looks like we’ll be getting to work on this new idea early. What do you think? Secret cult? Ghosts from the Civil War? Vampires?” at the last one Clark simply looked over at her with a look that said it all. “What? They’re popular right now is all I’m saying.”

“Just-let’s try not to make any enemies before we get a place to stay” he was severely starting to wish he had taken Ollie up on his offer to go golf in California for the weekend.

Clark pulled into a parking space and put a few quarters in the meter. Search for the supernatural aside, it did seem like a nice, quiet town. Given that it was literally off the map he figured that made sense, no big city corruption to find it. In a lot of ways, he wondered if Smallville would have been better off without the residue of Metropolis and companies like LexCorp.

Lois pulled her fleece around her as they walked towards the diner they had passed earlier. Not surprising for Maine that there was a chill in the air. Naturally it didn’t bother Clark but he wore his trademark red jacket anyway.

“ _Granny’s_? Seriously?”

His eyebrow was raised as he looked at her with amusement, “Small town, Lois” he reminded her, “Besides, Grandma’s have the best cookies.”

* * *

 

Emma walked down the street briskly; her red leather jacket zipped up to guard against the chill that she had come to expect with fall days in Storybrooke. Her blonde hair was done in a bun and a reflective piece of metal was clipped to her belt. She was on duty, Sheriff’s duty. She got much more work than one would expect to receive in a town like this; and unfortunately for her it was never petty theft.

Except on this occasion.

She looked both ways then crossed the street, pushing open the door to Granny’s dinner. Barely acknowledging the _‘Afternoon Sheriff’s’_ she received, her eyes glanced around the place. Given it’s size, it wasn’t that hard to take a quick attendance of its patrons and realize who she wanted wasn’t here. However the swinging back door told her where they had gone.

Emma broke into a sprint, making sure to avoid the waitress as she did so. She pushed the door open and looked around trying to see where the suspect had gone before sprinting back around to the main street in hopes of spotting them. There weren’t many places to hide but he did have a head start on her and that could have given him plenty of time to get a car or onto a side street.

Emerging onto the main street she looked around wildly before jogging east. It was nothing more than a guess and a hope; and as she jogged further down the side walk she could spot a small crowd forming. “What the hell?” she muttered, picking up her pace. Her mind assumed the worse. Had someone tried to stop him? Did he shoot them? And here she was complaining about not having _normal_ cases.

“Well Sheriff, looks like someone did your job for you”

When she finally reached the crowd she saw what the man had been referring to. Seated on the ground, or rather propped up against a pole, was Dicky Williams wanted for breaking and entering along with theft. Propped up was most definitely the better term as he seemed to be unconscious with his hands tied behind his back.

Emma looked at the faces in the crowd, none of them seemed to be coming forward as the vigilante hero. They were all talking amongst themselves, seemingly trying to figure it out as well. Emma knew she should be grateful; accept this as an act of a samaritan but she couldn’t fight the curiosity and suspicion growing inside her.

Who was behind this?

* * *

 

“Clark!”

The black haired young man emerged from the bathroom and snapped his head in the direction of Lois Lane. There was a plate of half eaten waffles in front of her but he assumed that had nothing to do with why she was shouting at him from across the diner. Making his way towards her, he also spotted a newspaper on the table and knew right away that Lois Lane’s search for the unusual had already begun. A local newspaper was as good a lead as any.

“While you were off doing god knows what in there, I managed to get us a place to stay” Lois started, not bothering to look up from the paper. “The lady who runs this place, Granny, also owns a bed and breakfast,” she paused to look at him, “You were right, Granny’s really are great. Maybe she’s hiding a clever and a body in the kitchen. _That_ would be a story.”

Clark fixed her with another look but didn’t say anything. He was just happy that she was preoccupied with things other than where he had been. Explaining that he had run down the street to stop a criminal, or at least someone he assumed was a criminal, wasn’t on his to do list. Being chased down by someone Granny confirmed as the Sheriff usually left little room for interpretation though.

As if on cue the jingle for the front door went off and in walked the blonde woman from earlier. Her leather jacket was unzipped now and strands of loose hair framed her face, an obvious after effect of running. Reminding himself not to stare, Clark looked down to his untouched food and began to poke at it, half-listening to Lois go on about the newspaper and watching the Sheriff out of the corner of his eye.

She had moved behind the counter and was now talking with Granny. The conversation was too far away for _normal_ hearing to eavesdrop on; Luckily Clark Kent didn’t fall into the category of those with normal hearing.

“I’m sorry about that, barging in and out of here” the Sheriff apologized, only to have Granny wave off her apology.

“Don’t worry about it, darling. We all have a job to do” the elderly women assured her before a mischievous look twinkled in her eye. “So?”

“We got him. Dicky Williams. He broke into the Johnson’s place and stole some silverware a few days ago” Emma explained, “He only got down the street before someone must have clocked him.”

“ _Someone?”_

Emma paused, taking a look around to see if anyone was listening. Clark made sure to busy himself with the food in front of him just for good show. “Well when I caught up with him he was already out cold and tied up. No one at the scene saw what had happened.”

Granny was quiet, processing the news he assumed. “I always knew that boy was up to no good. He was a little rascal as a boy as well. But at least he’s been caught.” Clark couldn’t help but look their way again as he heard her response. Granny, for all her sweetness, seemed far less concerned with the fact that someone had assisted justice than the Sheriff did.

“Smallville” a poke in his side snapped his head back to Lois who was looking at him with a suspicious gaze. “What are you doing?”

“I was-uh-I saw the Sherriff over there. I was thinking if there are any weird cases that she’d know about them” he covered, nodding in the direction of the blonde.

Lois looked unconvinced by his explanation, “Nice try, but cops are the last people who could be useful to us. They’re always the first to dismiss unusual happenings as coincidence because they’re too lazy to look into it. And when you do prove them wrong, they usually just yell at you for taking the law into your own hands when really you just embarrassed them in front  of their superiors and they’re just angry about it.”

Something told Clark that Lois had more than one of those such experiences but didn’t push it further. God knows him and Sheriff Adams had their differences in the past.

“Look at this” Lois shoved the newspaper over to Clark, holding up a folded page.

The picture was of an older woman, though perhaps older was being a bit harsh. She had short black hair and a bright smile on her face. The caption read: _‘Mayor organizes local run’_. Clark looked over at Lois confused, “What makes the Mayor more likely to help us than the Sheriff?”

“What?” Lois looked at the paper with a frown before flipping it over, “Not that picture, _this_.”

“’Antique store owner shows off stock’, what am I supposed to be seeing her, Lois” Clark questioned as he looked at the accompanying photograph. That was most definitely an older man and despite the smile on his face, the picture itself seemed to give off bad vibes.

“Well for starters this town is utterly boring. I mean a story about the antique shop in the newspaper” Lois said, a little too loudly as a few of the patrons looked in their direction. Not one to apologize she merely continued, “But antique and pawn shops are the best location for ancient stuff. Maybe even things with a history to them. Ancient tribal daggers and all that.”

“You know, not every town is filled with ancient secrets Lois” Clark interjected.

“You’re right, some have recent secrets” Lois replied as she gathered her purse with the newspaper and slid out of the booth, “I’ll be waiting in the car.”

Before Clark could get a word in edgewise, he realized all too late that Lois had left him with the bill and he hadn’t even taken a bite into his food. With a resigned sigh he placed his fork down and pulled out his wallet so he could pay. As he looked up his eyes again fell to the blonde Sheriff who was now talking to a long haired brunette.

For a moment he entertained the thought of walking up to her and simply saying ‘you’re welcome’. Would she understand the words without context? Before his thought process could go any further Clark placed the money on the table and got up. Maybe one day soon he could say that, but not as Clark Kent and certainly not today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I admit I have no clue where this came from or where it's going to go. Not to mention the timelines are a bit messed up, it's definitely post-curse for OUAT but Smallville is a bit trickier. post s7 was the easiest but I kinda just want to go post everything but take away the Lois/Clark relationship if only to let me play around with my Swanville crackship for a bit :P But yes! so i did actually think it was a bit interesting since magic is probably Clark's only other weakness aside from Kryptonite which makes Storybrooke a reasonably dangerous place to be for him. For Lois of course, it's the possibility of a big story that drives her and may get them into some trouble along the way. but like i said, i don't have that much planned at the moment so just bare with me! feedback is supremely loved


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